Brave has investments from A16Z, a VC fund that has been involved in multiple pump and dumps and shoes founders are fundamentally opposed to democracy and human rights.

FWIW, I did not have a single book with DRM issues. That being said, I don’t have too many “hot bestsellers” or something similar.

Get them out of Amazon:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=361503

It works, I just exported alk my ebooks into epub earlier today.

I normally dislike “Fuck [X]” type posts, even if I agree with the sentiment, but I completed to make an exception.

Fuck Elon “pedoguy” Musk!

It’s too bad we can’t send Elmo, his collaborators and sycophants right into the sun.

I was able to export (you’ll have to remove DRM via plugin) all of my Kindle ebooks into epub using “Method 2a” of this guide:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=361503

It’s can be a massive pain with some metadata issues, but at least it works.

I’ve been meaning to do this for years, but have always been too lazy.

I am really hoping they will provide at least 2 more years of updates for everyone (perhaps the EU can force them to).

SeepDeek

Add Elmo and pedoguy.

Agreed, moving away from American tech stuff is becoming a priority.

American oligarchs are no better than the oligarchs who work with putin or Xi. Perhaps even worse because they tend to be much more dishonest in their rhetoric (constant pompous rants about “changing the world for the better”).

The one silver lining about the new US administration is that it has helped undermine some fundamental notions around American exceptionalism.

American oligarchs are not that different from oligarchs in other countries.

I’ve been searching for an alternative search engine. Found Searx to be subpar.

Was thinking about Kagi, but if they work with the russians, that’s an immediate no go for me.

The irony.

This is how you know they are a bunch of malicious bullshitters.

I am from Ukraine, where we have a very large uptake of digital national IDs and even government service mobile applications (municipal, health, military etc.). These service were relatively popular when launched, but there was a massive increase in uptake after the full scale invasion.

One of the main strengths of the digital national ID/mobile government services is that they are so convenient. A bureaucratic process (that was actually very simple) could take 4-5 hours waiting in line in say 2012, now it can be done almost immediately. The government constantly adds different useful modules and systems. For example, during COVID up to date vaccination status was present in the app and you could use it while travelling (at least to the EU, no clue about US). I like the Kyiv municipal app as well. It’s relatively well designed and offers a bunch of services. Broad uptake also means that there are network effects; with companies and government services integrating these services (e.g. in situations where you need to confirm your identity).

I would also argue the notion of privacy isn’t as linear and simple as might seem at first glance. There are legitimate situations where the government needs access to data to find traitors and collaborators. This saves lives as it weakens the russians’ ability to target their air strikes. That being said, we already had a national ID system (legacy of russian occupation under the USSR) before, so you only benefit from digitization.